75 responses to “Cricket Lovely Cricket!”

1. 

   Sargeant

   January 26, 2019 at 6:44 pm

   
   

   @DPD

   Relax, its only one game don’t get so ahead of yourself otherwise the letdown could be brutal. Let’s see if there are repeat performances in the upcoming Tests but “To a thirsty man a drop of water is worth more than a sack of gold”.

   Its not over ‘till the fat lady sings.

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2. 

   T.Inniss

   January 26, 2019 at 6:50 pm

   
   

   That was long in coming for Young Jason.A well deserved win on your home turf as well.

   Hope this win will give them the motivation they need to keep wining

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3. 

   Sir Simple Simon, P.C.

   January 26, 2019 at 9:22 pm

   
   

   I had a great day at Kensington. i would not have missed it for anything.

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4. 

   Donna

   January 26, 2019 at 11:12 pm

   
   

   Too early for me to be ecstatic. I’ve been hurt too many times. I’m still sorry I refused to go.

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5. 

   Hal Austin

   January 27, 2019 at 10:45 am

   
   

   Have you noticed the prime minister got her photo opportunity with the West Indies cricketers. Wow! Show her a camera and anything goes.
   This juvenile behaviour must stop. Whatever happened to the dignity of office?.

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6. 

   Hal Austin

   January 27, 2019 at 4:45 pm

   
   

   Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed has been banned for four matches after admitting making a racist remark to South Africa all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo.
   The International Cricket Council said Sarfraz breached its anti-racism code in a one-day international in Durban.
   Sarfraz, 31, later apologised and claimed his words were “not directed towards anyone in particular”.
   The wicketkeeper will miss two one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches, all against South Africa.
   “Sarfraz has promptly admitted the offence, was regretful of his actions and has issued a public apology, so these factors were taken into account when determining an appropriate sanction,” said the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) chief executive David Richardson.
   The world governing body opened an investigation after Sarfraz was caught on a stump microphone using the Urdu word “kaale”, meaning “black”.
   Sarfraz will also have to go on an ICC education programme.
   He was charged under a part of the section of the code relating to “conduct (whether through the use of language, gestures or otherwise) which is likely to offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate, threaten, disparage or vilify any reasonable person… on the basis of their race, religion, culture, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin”.
   In response, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a statement that it had “a zero-tolerance approach to racist comments and behaviour”, but expressed its “utmost disappointment” with the decision to ban Sarfraz.(Quote)

   Good old Muslims.

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7. 

   Sir Simple Simon, P.C.

   January 27, 2019 at 9:06 pm

   
   

   @Hal Austin January 27, 2019 10:45 AM “Have you noticed the prime minister got her photo opportunity with the West Indies cricketers. Wow! Show her a camera and anything goes.
   This juvenile behaviour must stop. Whatever happened to the dignity of office?”

   So when the British High Commissioner had a photo-op with the England team last week, was that juvenile too? Was it undignified?

   There is nothing at all juvenile nor undignified about the British High Commissioner or the Barbados Prime Minister wishing the young men well.

   In fact I commend both ladies.

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8. 

   Hants

   January 28, 2019 at 12:07 am

   
   

   Mia on a high

   Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley says she feels validated by Government’s decision to support the Barbados Cricket Association’s (BCA) bid to host international cricket matches between West Indies and England at Kensington Oval.

   http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/236403/mia

   A loving embrace for Jason. lol

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9. 

   de pedantic Dribbler

   January 28, 2019 at 1:27 pm

   
   

   It was reported that Andrew Flintoff was rather dismissive of Jason Holder’s double hundred … reportedly saying that if a #8 can do that then his English mates should be able to make lots of runs…

   Two things came to mind when I read that…1) he sounds jealous and too peed off at the loss but too 2) he makes a valid point.

   On 2 it’s reasonable to say that if two lower order batsmen can see out an entire day on a pitch while scoring centuries then higher order batsmen should reasonably be able to battle resoltutely on the same pitch against a pace attack not likely to repeat it’s day 2 excellence….fair enough…. So poor on them!

   But on 1 he is a sore loser and absolutely out of line.

   There are seeral batsmen with double hundreds but a few of them have batted at eight in the order….there are also several test batsmen with double hundreds who also took wickets but at this moment and for the last year Holder has been outstanding with bat and ball and currently is in the same stratosphere of Sir Garry and Imran Khan on stats.

   Holder CAN BAT… this double is less an aberration than it is a credit to his skills, luck on the day and his focus.

   There is no reason Holder can’t remain at the top among all rounders by the end of his career thus definitely leaving Flintoff far behind on the stats list… the Englishman had a good career so no need to begrudge Holder the rewards of his hard work and skills … As the Jamicans would say : he needs to haul he bumbaclot!

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10. 

    Donna

    January 28, 2019 at 3:32 pm

    
    

    No! Bad old MUSLIM! Singular.

    Now, Mia taking a picture with Jason is TRULY a non-issue.

    I wish Flintoff and Boycott would talk even worse before the second test. But unfortunately I fear they will learn their lesson until they have a memory lapse next couple of series. Let us hope our guys have a longer memory!

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11. 

    45govt

    January 28, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    
    

    Nice article on a proper hero.
    Cricket
    Sir Everton Weekes interview: ‘I’m 93 – and my doctor has only just told me to stop swimming in the sea every day’
    Not many people have been a top cricketer, a top commentator and a top human being. Sir Everton Weekes was the first of this kind. Some might argue that at the age of 93 – he turns 94 next month – he is also the last.
    Sir Everton scored 15 centuries in his 48 Tests and averaged 58. He is, to this day, the only man to have scored centuries in five consecutive Test innings – and in his next he was going strong on 90 when adjudged to have been run out against India in Madras, as was. Those were the days before neutral umpires and television cameras.
    Has there been a better pairing at the microphone than the late Tony Cozier doing ball-by-ball commentary and Sir Everton summarising at the end of an over; a better combination of informed observation and relaxed yet insightful criticism? During the first Test between West Indies and England at Kensington Oval last week, which Sir Everton watched from the Worrell, Weekes and Walcott Stand, the Prime Minister of St Vincent, Ralph Gonsalves, told him he was his favourite commentator.
    His philosophy has always been “live and let live” – those four words to which the world’s wisest philosophies can be boiled down. Sir Everton inspired such friendships that during the Australian tour of the West Indies in 1954-55, a significant moment occurred in the history of race relations in cricket. When one of the white West Indian players threw a party, the Australians refused to accept the invitation if the black West Indian players were not invited as well. When England had toured the Caribbean the year before, I am afraid they had not drawn the same line in the sand.
    And now Sir Everton is serenity. The last of the three Ws has his marbles intact and if he is a little frail – might not be able to square-cut and pull with quite the same withering power – he has the richest of smiles, the warmest of hearts. Not for him any self-aggrandisement: mention his triple century against Cambridge University at Fenner’s in 1950, which helped to spark the calypso summer, and he immediately recalls the runs scored by David Sheppard – “he was made a bishop” – and Peter May, the future England captain; and, free of bitterness, he speaks as warmly of current cricketers as he does of those in his playing career.
    “For starters, I would say the word ‘hate’ has been removed from my vocabulary,” said Sir Everton on the final day of the first Test when asked how he keeps going. And that is an achievement itself for a person born in 1925 in Barbados, a white plantocracy where even the notion of social justice did not exist, especially for a boy rich in nomenclature – as Everton de Courcy Weekes – but otherwise poor.
    His batting was conditioned by his upbringing, all right: he hit the ball along the ground and recorded only two sixes in his Test career – and one of them was all run – because he had to learn the game in the small yard of his home in central Bridgetown, some 300 yards from Kensington Oval.
    “There was no fence. If you hit the ball through somebody’s window, that was the end of that ball,” – balls he and his friends made for themselves, knitted together from cork, paper and cloth. “The actual six was in Trinidad against Australia, over mid-on against Bill Johnston – we were both born on Feb 26.” Sir Everton had to join the army to play organised cricket, express himself and have his gifts recognised.
    “I used to swim every day up to two years ago, at Miami Beach [near Oistins on the south-west coast of Barbados], but I’ve got high blood pressure and I’ve been advised not to go into the seawater because it can be very rough at times. I’ve missed it. But the doctor thinks drowning is not a very pleasant way to go.”
    Sir Everton represented Barbados at bridge “for about 10 years” as well as cricket. Indeed, he put the bridge into Bridgetown. “I play once, maybe twice a week now. Most of the bridge is played at night and I no longer drive at night. The traffic is not very pretty in Barbados.” And again, the chuckle in the understatement.
    “Ever since I retired from Test cricket, I’ve been playing bridge seriously. Actually, I’ve played bridge against England, against Australia and against India.”
    Needless to say, he does not point out that he also scored a lot of Test runs against these countries. In the 1950 series, it was his partnership of 283 with Frank Worrell in the third Test at Trent Bridge, when the series stood at 1-1, which basically alerted the cricket world that non-whites, too, could bat, sometimes in more entertaining style. If his one poor series was in Australia in 1951-52 when the West Indian board made the basic error of arranging only one first-class game – in a new country, with pitches of very different bounce – before the first Test, he made up for it in 1954-55. And in both of his series against India he averaged more than 100.
    “I do a lot of reading – most of the stuff is biblical.” He also has a copy of the new book about John Arlott and Jim Swanton which he is going to read, because he was friends with Swanton, the late cricket correspondent of the Telegraph – “we got on pretty well” – and used to play for EW Swanton’s XI in several countries. “I spend a lot of time watching the television,” he added. “Your knowledge can be expanded quite a lot if you have time to watch BBC, for instance.
    “What I like about cricket now is that the players are being paid properly.” In his day, to make a living from cricket, Sir Everton played in the Lancashire League, for 10 years, before a thigh operation went wrong and stopped him playing. He not only opened the batting for Bacup – with a future Lancashire captain, Bob Bennett – but the bowling, too: he gave up his leg-breaks and bowled outswingers. “In fact, I got 75 wickets in my first season at Bacup.”
    Does he watch Twenty20? “Of course. I like quite a few of them [the T20 players]. The top one in my opinion, and the one I like most, is the opening batsman, left-handed, from Jamaica – Chris Gayle. He was, in my view, a very good cricketer and it suited his style. He also made two triple-hundreds in Test cricket – he must be a very great player, in my view.”
    With Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach, the West Indian fast bowlers who rather alarmed England, he has sympathy. “The pitches don’t seem to give them much help, compared to fast bowlers in years gone by.” The secret of West Indian cricket when they were world champions, according to Sir Everton, was that “groundsmen would get up early to roll in the dew”. And not just professional groundsmen at the Test grounds, but those who did it for love at club grounds around the Caribbean: those pitches that shone in the sun, that brought the best and bravest out of batsmen, those pitches that do not exist any more, except possibly St Lucia, the third Test venue, which is now said to have the only pacy pitch in the West Indies.
    “For me, to watch cricket here [Kensington Oval] in the late Thirties, I would go out and help roll the pitch in the mornings with the ground staff so that I would be in the ground when the game starts. If I went back out, I’d not have much money to get back in, so I’d remain out there to help and roll the pitch. In the meantime, I was able to watch all the games and some very good players.”
    George Headley was his hero, above all. When Sir Everton played for Barbados in Jamaica in 1947, Headley made 200. What did he learn from the one who used to be known as “the Black Bradman”? “That occupation of the crease is extremely important. It didn’t matter how you looked, style did not come into play, the main thing was to spend plenty of time in the middle. He was a very fine example of that. He was not the type of person that would not help you – he was a very fine gentleman and we became very good friends.”
    Then he speaks glowingly of today’s players. What about the captain, Jason Holder? “He is a good cricketer and a nice young man, too. Most of them are very nice people, the young West Indian players.”
    Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott are buried at Cave Hill, above the cricket ground belonging to the University of the West Indies, overlooking the north of Bridgetown and the Caribbean, sparkling in all its shades of blue – and space has been set aside. “I’m the only person on earth who knows, to an inch, where he is going to be buried,” jests Sir Everton. Not yet, please, not yet.
    Discover more from The Telegraph

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12. 

    Sargeant

    January 28, 2019 at 4:41 pm

    
    

    I read where the powers that be will be erecting a statue of Wes Hall at Kensington and immediately I thought of Sir Everton, so where is his statue?

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13. 

    45govt

    January 30, 2019 at 2:48 pm

    
    

    England step into West Indies’ cauldron of history and memory seeking their own restitution
    A vastly improved performance will be required if Joe Root’s side are not to begin their year with a crushing series defeat
    Antigua is a place that exists twice: once in reality, and once in the imaginations of those who visit. Four centuries ago, an administrator called Christopher Codrington set up the first sugar plantation at Betty’s Hope and began importing slaves from Africa to harvest his fortune. Now, the cruise ships and luxury yachts sitting in English Harbour spit out hordes of white people in designer sunglasses, packing out the beaches, frequenting the swish restaurants, marvelling aloud about how relaxed everything is out here.
    The image of the sun-kissed island paradise is, of course, one Antigua is often quite happy to project onto itself. After all, tourism accounts for 60 per cent of GDP and more than half of all jobs. Only last week, prime minister Gaston Browne was hobnobbing with the global elite in Davos, trying to drum up investment. From the plantation owners to Allen Stanford, Antigua has spent virtually its entire history as a sort of playground idyll, a vehicle for outside actors to indulge their neo-colonialist fantasies. It’s almost too small to be anything else.
    Only on the cricket field, then, has it been able to shatter the idyll and compete on even terms. Antigua and Barbuda only got its independence from Britain in 1981, the same year it hosted its first Test match, with the hometown hero Viv Richards scoring an imperious 114 in front of a capacity crowd. Back then, by all accounts, the Antigua Recreation Ground was a raucous, riotous place, with the constant clatter noise coming from the old Rude Boy Stand, shaking opposition teams from their comfort zone, reminding them they were playing not just 11 players, but a whole nation.
    England in West Indies
    Five years later, Richards hit the fastest century in Test history in Antigua. Eight years after that, Brian Lara broke the world record. Ten years after that, remarkably, he did it again. Four years ago, at the newly built Vivian Richards Stadium across town, a much-maligned West Indies side batted out 130 overs for a draw, with Jason Holder scoring a century. England have still never won here.
    And so into this cauldron of history and memory step Joe Root’s side, dreaming of their own restitution. This is, for all its many virtues, a team that seems to need the occasional boot up the backside, and their fans and management will be hoping their miserable week in Barbados can act as a sort of shock therapy. It’s hard to conceive of England playing as badly here as they did there. Nevertheless, a vastly improved performance will be required if they are not to begin their year with a crushing series defeat.
    The strip at the Vivian Richards Stadium is one of the more mercurial in world cricket: by turns batting nirvana, spinner’s dream and pace paradise. It was certainly the latter last summer, when Bangladesh were rolled over for just 43 on the first morning, as the ball darted around like a sprite. Just a few months earlier, by contrast, an England Lions containing Keaton Jennings and Jack Leach were obliterated by West Indies ‘A’ in a game dominated by spin, with Jomel Warrican taking 11 wickets. Once more, England will need to read the pitch with the precision of a codebreaker.
    The pitch was being generously watered two days out, which suggests the groundstaff are concerned about it breaking up. There is also a substantial covering of grass, which may well be trimmed before the start of play but which would otherwise give plenty of encouragement to the fast bowlers. It could well be that, encouraged by Barbados, the West Indies are throwing their lot in behind their pace attack. The sight of Root undergoing extra bouncer practice in the nets, with rubber balls slung down into a slab of wet concrete, suggests England may well be thinking the same way.
    Read More
    In which case, Stuart Broad will probably return in place of Adil Rashid, pending a last-minute assessment of conditions. Chris Woakes is struggling with injury and has neither batted nor bowled in net practice; Sam Curran has enough credit in the bank to be forgiven a poor Test in Barbados; Rashid, meanwhile, was poor in Barbados, and with Root working on his canny leg-spinners, England may not necessarily miss his overs. With England not scheduled to play again in Asia until their tour of Sri Lanka in March 2020, it could conceivably be Rashid’s last Test cricket for a while.
    The batting is likely to remain unchanged. Joe Denly got an extended net on Tuesday, as England pondered the possibility of bringing him in as an opener in place of Keaton Jennings, or in place of Ben Foakes, with Jonny Bairstow dropping down the order and taking the gloves. But the most probable scenario is that Jennings will get one more chance, with the knowledge that one big score now would probably secure his Ashes place, with only the third Test and a four-day affair against Ireland to come between now and then.
    As for the West Indies, encouragingly few headaches. They are likely to be unchanged, with John Campbell earning another go at the top of the order and Roston Chase again shouldering the spin burden after his eight-wicket burst in Barbados. Coach Richard Pybus has warned his side against complacency, and perhaps their biggest task from here will be to maintain the surging intensity of Barbados, with the knowledge that for all the jubilation of Barbados, their job here is not yet half done.

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14. 

    de pedantic Dribbler

    January 31, 2019 at 4:27 pm

    
    

    Oh lordie… One swallow, said @Sargeant recently – as memory serves – does not a summer make… but boy oh boy this is now three excellent bowling performance swallows flying well… is this a new Windies cricket summer a coming!

    Oh how one could become a devout and avid bird watcher once again!

    Congrats to the team thus far.

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15. 

    Hants

    February 2, 2019 at 4:35 pm

    
    

    WEST INDIES WIN!!! AWSOMMMMMMME!!!!

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16. 

    David

    February 2, 2019 at 4:41 pm

    
    

    Congratulations to the West Indies!

    How sweet it is Hants!

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17. 

    de pedantic Dribbler

    February 2, 2019 at 4:42 pm

    
    

    Yes sir AWESOME..

    Absolutely, incredibly and awe-inspiringly Awesome.

    So sad that Alzarri Joseph will remember this awesome game victory with his personal tragedy … condolences to the young man.

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18. 

    Donna

    February 2, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    
    

    I guess I had better look for my hat now because it is time to eat it.

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19. 

    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    February 2, 2019 at 5:54 pm

    
    

    We won’t be too hard on you. You are allowed to put some ketchup on the hat.

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20. 

    Donna

    February 2, 2019 at 6:13 pm

    
    

    I have never been happier to eat my hat, ketchup or not. Now if Mia would make me eat my last hat then I could die even happier!

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21. 

    45govt

    February 2, 2019 at 6:15 pm

    
    

    Windies complete annihilation of compliant, gutless England
    From now on, the TV graphic of the Windies’ home record in Test cricket will have to be shown “excluding Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and England”.
    What an insane seven days of cricket this has been. While the hubris-drenched Yorkshire gobshites taking a 3-0 England victory as read in this nice, easy starter to a meaty year for English cricket were at the extreme end of the scale, few observers on either side predicted a Windies victory here. None predicted anything like this.
    England have been destroyed. Their batting has been the biggest and most conspicuous problem yet their bowlers also huffed and puffed through a 100-over period without a single wicket between Shimron Hetmyer slicing to cover on the second day in Barbados and John Campbell edging to slip on day two in Antigua.
    A hundred overs, without a wicket. England have lost 40 of the things in barely twice that. Their second innings today lasted 253 balls, a whole 37 more than Darren Bravo managed on his own.
    England’s best total of the series, the 246 in the second innings at Barbados (and as scores of 246 go it was a memorably terrible one) is 43 runs short of West Indies’ lowest effort of the series.
    The Windies are 1027/26 in the series so far. England are 642/40.
    MORE FROM DAVE TICKNER
    Broad a simmering, fuming menace but England look doomed
    Could it be this simple: are West Indies just better than England?
    This has been an utter pasting. England didn’t get beaten like this here in the 1980s. The only recent series that bear any comparison are the 2006/7 and 2013/14 Ashes whitewashes.
    England’s innings today was truly abject. It was so very terrible precisely because it was terrible in precisely the way that people always think terrible batting is terrible, yet so rarely is.
    England’s batsmen really did have fundamentally the wrong approach to almost every ball. They really did keep making boneheaded and ineffably wrong shot selections. They really did show no stomach for the fight. Three of the top seven were dismissed driving on the up on a pitch where nobody had stopped talking about the variable bounce for more than five seconds. The openers were dismissed cutting a ball that was far too close and leaving a ball that was far too close.
    A day after the West Indies cussedly and consistently spent 90 overs point-blank refusing to give England anything for free, Joe Root, whose batting looks disastrously out of rhythm but got two absolute bastards in this Test, was the only batsman not markedly at fault for his dismissal.
    Jos Buttler can perhaps be considered a touch unfortunate to have got his bat caught in his pad and had actually played nicely for his 24. With what happened everywhere else, we can perhaps excuse him his error and feed greedily on the small crumbs of comfort from the way he played before. There was simply nothing else.
    England’s plan today was not the calculated aggression of Jonny Bairstow’s first innings. On day one he gave everything that was there to hit the fullest treatment, but – and this was the part England seemed to completely forget today – paid due respect to all those deliveries that were not. This was reckless, Bairstow himself among the more conspicuously culpable and all the more maddening having come after 131 overs spent watching Windies batsmen show how it could be done.
    But as bad as England have been – and they have been thoroughly, miserably wretched, worse here even than Barbados – West Indies have been magnificent.
    It is rare indeed for one team to so thoroughly dominate the other in every aspect of the game. Their plans and execution have been better than England’s. They have bowled better, batted better, defended better, attacked better, caught better. Holder has out-manoeuvred Root – this series a big backwards step for England’s captain after such an assured display in Sri Lanka – and out-reviewed him.
    The review that led to Root’s dismissal today – a pivotal and symbolic moment that really marked the end of the game as any kind of contest – was a moment of genius; a successful lbw referral against Ben Foakes later in the day the icing on the cake.
    England have been found sorely lacking in every department by an opponent they and everyone else had underestimated. A small but in its own way telling example of England’s mindless cricket came late in today’s capitulation. Broad was trapped lbw, the ninth wicket to fall. He had a brief chat with batting partner Sam Curran, then decided not to review it. Yet England had two reviews and one wicket remaining; a scenario in which a review should be used by default.Who was Broad saving that second review for? Broad – a veteran of 125 Tests and at least as many reviews – hadn’t considered this.
    A small thing. But a small thing that these players – not least a number-10 batsman – should absolutely be aware of. Broad being Broad, of course, he did manage to squeeze a truly farcical lbw review into his solitary over in West Indies’ “run-chase”, a last bleakly comic moment in a disastrous defeat.
    For West Indies, the challenge is to build on this. They will – and should – enjoy a famous series victory. Then refocus on making it 3-0 – nothing of the last seven days’ action suggests this should be beyond them – and then on making absolutely certain this is not some one-off.
    West Indies have overachieved against England before, especially at home. Their aim now must be to once again make this kind of performance and this kind of result the norm. It won’t be easy but the ingredients are all there. Other teams will push the Windies harder, but performances like Barbados and here will trouble anyone. Do that, and there might be a few more countries who need to be excluded from those TV graphics.

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22. 

    Hal Austin

    February 9, 2019 at 1:31 pm

    
    

    The ICC wants to fine WICB for preparing a faulty pitch in Antigua. Can you believe it?

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23. 

    TheoGazerts

    February 10, 2019 at 11:26 am

    
    

    Seems as if the cricket fans are waiting for the outcome of the next match, before they get on board again.
    Do we have fanatics in WI cricket fans

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24. 

    TheOGazerts

    February 13, 2019 at 2:41 pm

    
    

    No getting on board…
    No comments

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25. 

    Hal Austin

    July 26, 2019 at 2:39 pm

    
    

    A decade in fast-changing China has taught me to expect the unexpected but, even so, I was taken aback by the scene at a school in the southwestern city of Chongqing.A dozen 11-year-olds swung plastic bats at balls thrown overhead by their classmates, playing a game that was, unmistakably, cricket.“If it flies without hitting the ground, it’s a six,” said Wu Yiyue, girl’s cricket team captain at Qinglong road primary school. “It’s better than football because you don’t have to run everywhere,” added a classmate.China’s first recorded cricket match was played in 1858 between a team of officers from the British navy and a Shanghai side. But while Britain’s empire spread the game to South Asia, Australasia and the Caribbean, China resisted colonisation and the game never took root, least of all in schools, which favour football and basketball.Global cricket authorities and the Chinese government have tried to build a national team, expanding training at universities and hiring the Pakistani cricketer Rashid Khan, who led them to an international debut in 2009. But results have been poor. China was bowled out for a humiliating 28 runs by Saudi Arabia in 2017, a record low for a first-team international match and they did not qualify for this year’s World Cup. As with China’s underperforming football team, pundits say a lack of grassroots engagement is the problem.But in Chongqing, parents are working to change that. Chief among them is Deng Dong, who in 2014 put out a plea on social media looking for a sport for his 11-year-old son. “I was afraid he didn’t know how to play any more,” he said.He was contacted by Bill Lee, a local businessman who had developed a passion for cricket from multiple trips to India. They hatched a plan with the headmaster of Qinglong school to hire a former Chinese international player as a coach.Zhang Peng, a former top national batsman, believes he is the only full-time children’s cricket coach in China. He has simplified the game’s rules and emphasises fun, though he does offer criticism: “Why are you missing the ball? Your bat is horizontal!”
    In Chongqing, a city of more than 8m people, thousands of children have now tried to play the game and hundreds join in an annual schools’ tournament. Qinglong, overshadowed by a forest of high-rise buildings in the city centre, has set up what is likely the country’s first netted batting range for children. A poster sells cricket’s advantages including health, team awareness, communication skills, English language ability and exchanges with international schools.Chongqing’s cricket revolution is part of a national trend. A new generation of middle-class Chinese parents with greater financial security hope their children can do more than just study. An American Football league for children has also attracted thousands. Cricket promotes “aristocratic consciousness”, says Mr Deng. His efforts are mainly funded by the schools and parents. “The government is more interested in promoting soccer,” he says. China is the world’s largest exporter of sporting goods but when it comes to cricket he has struggled to find local suppliers, relying on Indian imports for bats, balls and wickets. “What distinguishes Chongqing is that this is coming from the Chinese side. It is kind of a guerrilla effort,” says Matt Smith, a Briton who taught cricket in China for more than a decade.At the Jinke Primary in Chongqing’s suburbs, some 30 students play the game for four hours a week on a basketball court. “Cricket and football are of equal status,” says one of the school’s teachers, adding: “I feel [cricket] is a very handsome sport, more refined and more about individual technique than football”.More coaches are being trained in Chongqing and Mr Deng hopes that national players will one day emerge from the city. But middle-schools and high schools are less keen to promote sport, with academic work the main focus. It was also nearly impossible for fans to watch the World Cup in China; matches are rarely broadcast on television or streaming services.China’s cricketing future will rest on sustaining the passions of players like 12-year-old Wu Yuhui. “England should have the best cricket team,” he says, displaying a take on cricketing history as unorthodox as the pitch. “It was invented by India, I think.”

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